There are 22 donor countries -- the richest nations -- that have agreed to meet the 0.7% target head-on. Have they done it? Well, they keep agreeing and affirming their commitments, so we have at least that much. In 2003, the total, official amount of aid given towards the development goals was $69 billion (a large number, right?). But, the nations had actually committed to $200 billion per year towards development aid. It doesn't mean that we're going to cut off an arm and a leg to do it, either. It's only 0.7%!!
16 countries have agreed that they will meet the 0.7% target by the 2015 the deadline. Wanna guess whether the U.S. has set a timetable for achieving the 0.7% target? We haven't yet, folks. Shame on us. The US is one of 5 countries that have not set a date for meeting our target. Is it because we're afraid we will fail? Is it because we are uncertain whether we want to commit to this worthwhile project? Are we only talking nonsense but not really interested in doing it?
As of 2005, there are five countries (yay, you honorable five) that have already met their 0.7% targets:
- Denmark, 0.81%
- Luxembourg, 0.87%
- Netherlands, 0.82%
- Norway, 0.93%
- Sweden, 0.92%
Guess where the US stands. As of 2005, the US has committed 0.22% of our gross national income in aid. The US and Portugal are the two countries offering the least amount of aid (that we are capable of offering percentage-wise) compared to the other donor countries. (Even though it's not a competition) We beat Portugal by 0.01%.
US = 0.22%
Portugal = 0.21%
It is pathetic, folks. The Spaniards are reaching the goal. The British are halfway there. The Norwegians have left everyone else eating the dust (and if we don't eradicate poverty, that's what literally will happen--we'll eat dust. Yuck). The Swedes, the Italians. New Zealand, for goodness sakes! We can do better than this!
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